Topic: Your dream Castlevania game

[piscesdreams]

What would your dream Castlevania game be? How would it play? Who would you play as? What kind of mechanics would you want incorporated? Who would you want to develop it? 2D, 2.5D, 3D, VR? HD remake or brand new title? Main canon, side canon?

Discuss.

[uzo]

Not the one they just announced.

[Aceearly1993]

The dream Castlevania game... I have no idea, but for me the ideal Castlevania game must have clear and crisp graphic style. Dark and horror style also OK for me. (CV The Lecarde Chronicles and Rosenkreuzstilette/RKS Freudenstachel are very good examples since I don't care about them being fan-made games!) 
The stage setting, hardest difficulty must have legit control by producer and developer stuff in order to get the game not to be too frustrating (I can't stand the difficulty of CV Adventure Rebirth Hard Mode stage 5 and Hard final boss because of the lack of reasonable stage/enemy setting and recover rate. I tried my best to get through,with my 350+ Christopher buddies fallen just in final boss fight, FINALLY vanquished the horror and it's still a pain in the @$$ even in MUCH lower frame-rate thanks to emulator. This kind of frustrating should be ILLEGAL. It's really important to eliminate similar problems in a possible 2D side scrolling action game as much as possible)
Also the strange hit-detection of player's move and attack of enemies must be eliminated as much as possible. (Again, RKSF did an awesome job there. I don't even believe it and forgot it being an independent or fan-made game.) Or just drag the exact engine used by RKS/RKSF and changed to a Castlevania skin with Classic CV gameplay. If one did so the result would be awesome! (The reason why RKS is stopping for now when it's REALLY close to form a great 2D side scrolling action trilogy IS the planner WOMI didn't do anything except drawing some unrelated porno pictures for a completely separate personal project. Not doing. NOT doing. WOMI, you are damned.)

What kind of mechanics would you want incorporated...
I think Richter's Rondo style would be very cool, plus some useful and convenient arrangement and martial art moves like sliding, multi-directional whip skill. The style similar to CV Chronicles PS1 version with arrangement also OK for me (In fact CV Chronicles PS1 version was one of the best video game I've ever played, or THE game have the most possibility to approach my "dream" Castlevania game, I've been keeping 40+loops just for Original mode of Japanese version; The ONLY problem is that the format of the game is old-style and barely any of my friends satisfying that)
A separate hidden character which has marriage of abilities from Maxim Kischine and Mega Man Zero would be awesome. Powerful, but not to be too overpowered like Maxim

Who would you want to develop it?...
I think probably the stuff from CV X68000 team, DS CV team, Mega Man ZX team or RKS stuff are OK for me.
For publish, I don't care about the publish company being big or small or just without such a thing like that. BRING ONE GOOD PRODUCT AND IT'S ENOUGH FOR ME TO BE SATISFIED.

2D, 2.5D, 3D, VR?...
No doubt the 2D sprite-based style. The unlimited possibility just setting there
3D Castlevania may be cool but there are always some limits here and there, though CV64 format with modern arrangement would be good

HD remake or brand new title? Main canon, side canon?...
A brand new title with side canon that won't set against the existing canon would be very interesting. I like to see the plot like the "Dracula" which the Belmont meet at first is not real Dracula but just an impostor hired by him, though his dressing, wine glass, his throne room with tower bridge, and anything are just like what the real Dracula once did (aka CV64), the first castle would be simple and straightforward and once the impostor defeated there is another bigger castle to explore.

Other things...
For story dialogue/cut scenes, the quality equal to Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (English version! I love the English VA and English version OP song, for the English OP I still won't get bored after looping 700+times in during several years. REALLY hope there is another game which has THE quality of opening song) is the best
 
No too many update patches or annoying revisions. A good game should be polished enough when it's first-out, just like those form GBA/DS era

For the control of quality I think the producer and planner stuff should become the master player of the game first, give players an "I can also do it" message and engage the active power of most players

An Art/Boss Contest could be hold, but for such a "dream" game the commercial activities must avoid being too topic by mainstream or net whispers (Or just get rid of commercial activities just like what lots fan-game did). Under-light means high stress, thus being the source of high risk.

[Nagumo]

A Souls game with a Castlevania skin, pretty much. Either based on the level select feature of Demon's Souls or the open world style progression of the Dark Souls games. Since it would be a clone game, it might as well be outsourced to From Software. I think they could even carry over the character customization mechanic and let you pick a gender, base stats, and a little backstory. It would probably work best as side canon.

[shelverton.]

Yeah, a Castlevania which has level design and atmosphere similar to Dark Souls. Different areas that are interconnected in a similar fashion. Maybe not model the combat exactly after Souls though, but more Souls than LoS preferably. But still its own thing. Like, more snappy than Souls but not as combo heavy as LoS. Castlevania 64/LoD combat is actually not a bad thing to build off of, but update it for modern times.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

The planned SotN sequel. Huge castle. No redundance. Beautiful, smoothly animated pixels (20 frames per animation minimum). Sword Combos. Maria and Richter playable with equippable items. Harder difficulty than the original. 666 equippable weapons for Alucard. Thousands of items for each character. Spell Combos. PS4/PC goodness.

Damn near impossible tho.

[VladCT]

(20 frames per animation minimum)

Seems an awful lot excessive when you take faster attacks into account there (e.g. 6f jabs). :V

Anyway, Metroidvania with combos and at least two playable characters that can be switched on the fly plus tag canceling shenanigans to enable extended combos. And maybe take some ideas from Koumajou Densetsu with some bullet hell-spewing bosses.

[Kamirine]

I'm lame, so a 2D HD remake of Castlevania 3 with cutscenes of the story.  Along with the ability to play through new sections as just Grant, Slypha, and/or Alucard (like say, their story prior to meeting or being saved by Trevor).  New bosses for the few they repeated in later stages. 

That or a remake of the 64 game with all the issues fixed and ironed out completely.  Or at least a new game with a lot of the ideas the game had implemented into it.  Or just some ideas from previous Castlevania games as a whole.

EDIT:  Does the person that made Castlevania Chronicles: Curse of Darkness post here?  I literally just saw it today on YouTube and it's pretty much what I described minus the HD part. Are they going to finish/complete it? What ai saw looked like a beta.  Anyone got info?

[beingthehero]

SuccubusXAngela H-game, just without all the pachinko.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I was actually thinking about something like this the other day, admittedly, it wouldn't be a NEW Castlevania game, but a fresh take on several old ones.

I'd love to see a remake collection that has full 2.5D "Dracula X Chronicles" style remakes of Castlevania 3, 4, SOTN, AOS, and OOE. An emulator can be included to play the original Castlevania, and Order of Shadows as easter eggs. Kind of a "Best of" collection (with some goodies) for the franchise as a whole.

If that was the last Castlevania thing ever released, I could die a happy fanboy.

inb4 the Order of Shadows hate: I burned so much cell phone battery on that game back in the day-- I loved it to pieces because it was Castlevania and I could sneak it in ANYWHERE (even when I couldn't sneak in my GBA)

[Aridale]

(click to show/hide)

[Lumi Kløvstad]

DAA-YUM.

That Bone Pillar looks badass. I don't think that's official art..?

[Super Waffle]

Take the Pachi art direction but use it in an actual game.  With like platforming and bosses and stuff.

[Belmont Stakes]

A revamped (sorry) take on Dracula's Curse/Simon's Quest involving a Belmont who has been resurrected but as a skeleton/gates of death complete with bone whip and sickle or bone to chuck around. He must assume that and other enemy forms that allow him to progress farther into evil domain in order to restore his full human self. It would have similar gameplay to Zelda II/Battle of Olympus leveling up with some Simon's Quest esque exploration and Vampire Killer/Dracula's Curse platforming.
Standard fare go forth slaughter evil, save the queen and get you back to your normal pimp ass. The castle and the surrounding levels should be hazard filled not too dangerous but not boring either. Maybe it should be a step slightly below Ninja Gaiden but a cut above CVII. So yeah around CVIII should be adequate but with Castlevania 1 controls. Ok have a difficulty option.
So jump your chasms, watch for falling rocks, objects and monster mashers and spikes.
Find allies possibly Grant and or Sypha and upgrade your condition from fair to midland (blood skeleton zombie, zombie warrior, duhullan, wolfman, fishman) until you reach.......................VAMPIRE ALUCARD.
He is full vampire and like you needs to get in touch with his feminine side. So in exchange for some human blood and soul to temporarily make him a dhampire, he will in turn search the castle with his upgradable abilities to help you access more of the overall map. But he needs to use his blood as a key to shut off certain traps extend and retract platforms, calm winds and tame the creature of chaos. You will fight your favorite bad guys and dolls and dolls. One particular boss prior to meeting Draucla will have multiple forms and maybe three prior bosses in a 3 step battle form. Of course the battle with Dracula has to be super balls.
I want to see a game that combines the best elements of Classic and SOTN style balanced and better than Mirror of Fate.
That goes without saying. Since I am not a story teller I would be looking more for game play to push the story instead of vice versa.

If only they would do a Mario Maker for CV.

[piscesdreams]

I am a simple guy. HD sprite-based remake of Castlevania IV with new stages and/or alternate routes. Multiple soundtrack styles such as arrangements of the original in forms of orchestrated, rock and/or synth based. Hell, maybe a create a level option for extra measure ala Mario Maker would be a sweet extra.